SIEUR DE MONTS PUBLICATIONS 
III 



The Sieur de Monts 
National Monument 

AS 

A Bird Sanctuary 



Mount Desert Island 
Maine 




Young Bald-headed Eagle 

at 

''The Bowl," on Newport Mountain 



Photographed by Marion Rich 



SIEUR DE MONTS PUBLICATIONS 

I/- 

III 



The Seacoast National Park 



in 



Maine 

Viewed in the light of its relation 



to 



Bird Life and Bird Study 



By 
Henry Lane Eno 

Ornithologist Sieur de Monts National Monument 

ColJected seN' 



nj 






D. of D. 
NOV 30 1917 



The Sieur de Monts National Monument 
as a Bird Sanctuary 



With the opening of the Sieur de Monts National Mon- 
ument upon Mount Desert Island — the first National Park 
east of the Mississippi — a large and important area has been 
set aside as a bird reserve. 

The significance of this new creation, moreover, can 
scarcely be overestimated; for, the lover of wild life, the 
scientist, and the farmer alike possess interests in the con- 
servation of our birds. 

The principal causes for these several interests are three : 
Aesthetic, Scientific, and Economic; the first of which, in 
its broad appeal, is the Aesthetic. 

THE AESTHETIC REASON 

Our wild birds constitute one of the most beautiful and 
essential elements in nature. Without their abundant 
presence, the streams, the forests and the flowers — even the 
sky and the ocean — would lose their chief living charm. 

The imagination shrinks before the picture of a spring, 
no matter how lovely, deprived of the sweet voices and flash- 
ing forms of our early migrants; of a birdless summer forest, 
or of an autumn without its cheerful bands of roving feath- 
ered hunters. 

Yet with the rapidly increasing occupation of all avail- 
able lands — especially along our crowded eastern seaboard — 
for the purposes of industry, agriculture, and residence, all 
the wilder and more picturesque regions will soon be greatly 
diminished in extent, eventually to disappear almost com- 
pletely, together with the wild and interesting forms of life 
which they at present shelter, unless considerable tracts are 
set apart, before it is too late, in order to conserve them. 

For it is well-known that whenever the numbers of any 



4 SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 

species, through persecution or lack of suitable environment, 
become reduced beyond a certain point, the whole species 
quickly comes to an end. Already the splendid Pileated 
Woodpecker and the Woodcock, once so plentiful, have 
grown alarmingly scarce ; while the Passenger Pigeon and the 
Great Auk are extinct Moreover, needless to say, any form 
of bird or animal that is once gone can never be brought 
back. 

It is clearly, then, our task and duty, while yet in time, 
to take the necessary measures to preserve, by every means 
within our power, the rich fullness of our wild-life, with its 
congenial haunts, for the profit and joy of future genera- 
tions. 

Neither economic prosperity nor social advantage com- 
prise the whole value of experience. To the tired dweller in 
our great cities, to the overworked toiler under the growing 
nervous tension of modern artificial conditions, the peaceful 
healing of natural things — their quiet beauty and their sooth- 
ing charm— are becoming constantly more indispensable. 

"These enchantments," said Emerson in his famous 
"Nature", "are medicinal, they sober and heal us. These 
are plain pleasures, kindly and native to us." It is not alone 
the body that finds rest and recuperation among our se- 
cluded lakes and forests, but most of all the mind, which, 
turning its stream into new and more healthful channels, 
gains a great invigoration, establishing fresh throught- 
centers which will act, through memory and association, as 
life-giving stimuli for weeks and months to come. 

But none of these beneficent conditions would be com- 
plete without the birds. For whether we study their enticing 
ways with scientific interest, or idly follow their flight and 
song as simple nature lovers, they remain, always, the su- 
preme, delicate touch in the picture, without which the for- 
ests would seem desolate, the meadows lifeless and cold. 

THE SCIENTIFIC REASON 
The interest of Science in the conservation of our native 



SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 5 

fauna is quite as great as the Aesthetic interest, and much 
more specific. 

The wild fife of any region constitutes almost the entire 
material with which Natural History and Biology must work; 
without this material in abundance and wide variety they 
can not pursue at all their valuable researches. Plenitude 
of living organisms is as important to them as seed to the 
farmer or stone to the mason. 

We are performing, therefore, a most useful service in 
the cause of Science in helping to preserve and multiply 
those forms which are the subjects of her study. 

As a basis, too, for special research particular species 
may become essential. We all know of Darwin's wonder- 
ful experiments with pigeons, and the importance of the re- 
sults obtained. How much might he not have been handi- 
capped, if all the pigeons had been ruthlessly slaughtered and 
exterminated — as our own wild pigeons were — before their 
domestication had become established? 

Similarly, the researches of modern Biology into the 
nature of the life process itself — researches which promise so 
much in the interest of science and for the benefit of the 
race — are dependent largely upon the presence of certain 
specific organisms as subjects of investigation, and, at any 
moment, some fresh variety of bird or animal may prove of 
paramount importance for the successful prosecution of 
this great work. 

For Animal Psychology, again, which is now casting 
illumination upon such vexed questions as the migrating and 
homing instincts of birds — with the fascinating suggestion of 
a sixth sense, the mysterious sense of direction — as well as 
upon other problems of research which have an even more 
intimate connection with human behavior, all the higher 
forms of life, in widest possible variety, are essential as 
subjects for investigation. 

There remains, in addition still, the more exclusive 
biologic interest in the protection of our birds as objects 
in themselves of study. Here, again, abundance and variety 
of forms are essential for the investigation of such questions 



6 SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 

as the range and migration of species, their most favorable 
habitat and environment, their breeding and feeding habits, 
the merging of varieties, or the possible development of 
varieties into distinct species under changing conditions. 

Nature moreover, is not an unrelated patchwork but a 
complex in which no constituent part can be destroyed with- 
out affecting to some degree the whole, and disturbing the 
well-regulated balance. Nor, with our limited knowledge, 
are we ever aware how essential any particular species of 
animal or plant may be in nature's economy, nor how impor- 
tant to ourselves, until, perhaps, realization of its useful- 
ness comes all too late. 

A striking instance in point occurred within the last 
few years. 

A large sheep owner on one of the grassy islands off the 
Massachusetts coast had reason to believe that the crows, 
which flocked to his meadows in great numbers, were in the 
habit of feeding occasionally upon his young lambs. He 
accordingly prosecuted a relentless warfare on these feathered 
enemies of his flock. 

The next year his fields were yellow and barren; the 
grass had all been killed by the larvae of the Junebug. In- 
structed by a friendly ornithologist, he discovered, to his 
chagrin, that the crows had been feeding almost exclusively 
upon these destructive grubs and that as the result of his 
campaign he had lost many more lambs from starvation 
than the light toll he had accused the crows of taking. 

This is but one example of the immense value of certain 
birds — and, in this case, of birds popularly considered among 
the most harmful and useless — as our defenders against 
fatally destructive foes. 

The exact role played by the different species, however, 
can be fully discovered only after many more years of ac- 
curate research. If, in the meantime, useful species are 
largely diminished, or perhaps totally destroyed, through lack 
of proper protection, the special benefits they bring are lost 
forever. 



SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 7 

THE ECONOMIC REASON 

The considerations which have led to an appreciation 
of the economic importance of our wild birds have been one 
of the immediate results of scientific ornithology, and make, 
perhaps, its most direct appeal. It should not be forgotten, 
however, that here, as elsewhere, the more purely scientific 
research — the pursuit of special knowledge for its own sake 
alone — has been the necessary and inevitable forerunner of 
the practical application which has followed, and that it was 
the interest of the professional ornithologist in the food 
supply of particular species that opened the way to a 
correct estimation of the astonishing part played by birds as 
destroyers of the various insect pests. 

It has been stated, indeed, and not without good reason, 
that were it not for their feathered enemies, the voracious and 
rapidly multiplying insect hosts would occasion such havoc 
among our trees and crops that the green earth would quick- 
ly become a desert incapable of supporting any form of life 
whateve-*. For nearly all birds are insect destroyers, while 
many species feed exclusively upon these devastating 
creatures. 

Woodpeckers, chicadees, nuthatches, and other smaller 
tree-creepers cleanse the various layers of bark from the 
grubs, eggs, and larvae which infest them. Warblers simi- 
larly act as scavengers among the leaves. Swallows and fly- 
catchers pursue their quarry among the tiny winged denizens 
of the air. Thrushes, sparrows, and the ground feeders hunt 
through the herbage and undergrowth; while even the smaller 
hawks and other birds of prey subsist largely upon grass- 
hoppers and such vermin. 

The number of insects devoured, in these various ways, 
is almost incredible. 

"It will be found stated," says Dr. Chapman, Curator of 
Ornithology in the American Museum of Natural History, 
"that the stomach of a single Cedar Waxwing contained one 
hundred canker worms, that one Cuckoo had eaten two 
hundred and fifty caterpillars, that four hundred and fifty 



8 SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 

plantlice were found in the stomach of one Chicadee, that a 
Nighthawk had made a meal on sixty grasshoppers, that a 
Fhcker had devoured one thousand chinch bugs, that a 
Scarlet Tanager was seen to eat six hundred and thirty gJT^sy 
moth caterpillars in eighteen minutes, or at the rate of two 
thousand one hundred an hour; while a Maryland Yellow- 
throat ate three thousand five hundred plantlice in forty 
minutes, or at the rate of five thousand two hundred seventy 
an hour!" 

If we add that the United States Department of Agri- 
culture has estimated the loss to agricultural interests oc- 
casioned by insects at about Eight Hundred Million Dollars 
a year, and the loss to the interests of forestry at One Hun- 
dred Million Dollars, we can form some rough estimate of the 
services of our wild birds! 

As devourers of the seeds of noxious weeds, also, the 
birds are of inestimable value to the agriculturist. 

Dr. Chapman states "that seven hundred seeds of the 
pigeon grass were taken from the stomach of a Tree Spar- 
row by Professor Beal, who estimates that this species de- 
stroys no less than eight hundred and seventy-five tons of 
weed seed annually in the single state of Iowa; that one 
thousand pigweed seeds were found in the stomach of a 
Snow Bunting; that a Bob-white contained five thousand 
seeds of pigeon grass; while a Mourning Dove had eaten the 
enormous number of seven thousand five hundred seeds of 
the yellow-wood sorrel." 

It should be mentioned, further, that the hawks and 
owls yearly destroy an enormous quantity of noxious rodents; 
while the crows and gulls of the North, and the vultures in the 
South, perform a most necessary duty as scavengers. 

Nor, finally, let us be ungrateful to the wing-feeding 
and marsh-inhabiting birds who are responsible for the de- 
struction of innumerable hosts of mosquitos and other di- 
sease-conveying insects. * How important this last function 
of our avifauna may be, Science has not as yet determined; 

♦Birds of Eastern North America, by Frank M. Chapman, pp. 99-103. 



SlEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 9 

but it is highly probable that further research will show that 
it is far from being the least among their many valuable 
services. 

HOW BIRDS ARE PROTECTED 

We have seen, in brief outline, how important is the 
problem of bird-conservation for economic, as well as sci- 
entific, and aesthetic reasons. 

How, then, is their conservation to be insured? 

For this purpose there are three principal agencies: 
Legislation, Education, and Sequestration. 

PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION 

Almost every State has enacted more or less stringent 
laws for the protection of its birds; and recently the Federal 
Government, in the Migratory Bird Act, has taken a much 
needed step in the cause of inter-state protective legislation. 

In general the statutes provide for a limited open season 
for most game birds, both of sea and land; and, in many 
states, a prohibition against shooting for the market at any 
season, as well as against the killing of songbirds at all times. 
In this way a great deal, undoubtedly, has been accom- 
plished; and if the laws were indeed strictly observed, there 
would be much less left for private endeavor to achieve. It 
is to be regretted, however, that they are honored more large- 
ly in the breach than in the observance. 

For this reason the campaign of education, waged now 
for some years, has proved of the greatest significance in 
the cause of bird protection. 

EDUCATION 

It is, in fact, due principally to the growing efficiency of 
this instructive campaign that the laws which are already 
upon the various statute books have been obtained ; and it 
will, without doubt, be by reason of a still more wide-spread 
appreciation of the value of our birds that these laws will in 



10 SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 

time become universally observed, and yet greater private 
and public efforts directed towards bird conservation. 

In this important work the well-known Audubon 
Society, with its various branches in the different States, was 
a pioneer; and it was largely because of its intelligent ex- 
ertions that not only protective legislation, but the splendid- 
ly effective methods of Public School instruction and wide 
circulation of ornithological literature have, together, suc- 
ceeded in drawing the public attention. 

"It is the diffusion of this wide-spread knowledge of the 
economic, as well as the aesthetic importance of birds," says 
Dr. Chapman, "which has made it possible to secure the 
passage and enforcement of effective laws for their protec- 
tion; and it is in this continued and increasing interest in 
birds, not alone as our efficient co-workers in garden, field, 
orchard, and forest, but as the most eloquent expression of 
nature's joy and freedom, that we shall doubtless find a true 
measure of their greatest value to man." 



SEQUESTRATION 

It is, however, in the recent movement for the creation 
of special reservations, absolute sanctuaries for the protection 
of bird life, that the awakening of public interest has shown 
its culminating effect; for these reservations "combine all the 
measures serving for the protection of birds."* 

Such sanctuaries may be of vast extent, as our great 
National Parks in the West; or they may comprise but the 
tiniest garden plot in the outskirts of one of our great eastern 
cities. In either case they are of almost inestimable value, 
and afford, within their limits, satisfactory solutions for al- 
most every problem — food, shelter, protection from maraud- 
ing creatures, and nesting facilities. 



*How to Attract and Protect Wild Birds, by Martin Hieseman. 
Translated by Emma S. Buchheim, London. Witherly & Co., London, 
316 High Holborn 

This little book is most valuable, and a classic upon the subject. 



SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 11 

One has only to note the surprising number of species 
which congregate at certain times of the year in such places 
as the church-yard of Trinity Church, in New York City, at 
the very heart of the Western World's greatest financial 
center, to see how the birds will flock even to the smallest 
area,'Jn an apparently most unfavorable environment, where 
adequate protection is insured. 

Bradford Torrey, again, has counted half a hundred 
different species of birds in one day in the Boston Common 
and Public Gardens — a much larger but nonetheless unlikely 
spot for the observation of wild life; while Central Park in 
New York City constitutes a still wider and more fertile field 
for the urban ornithologist. 

If these astounding results have been accidentally ob- 
tained under such adverse conditions, what may we not 
reasonably expect where the protected areas are of wide 
extent and suitable environment? 

A striking example of actual accomplishment is the 
wonderfully successful experiment conducted by Edward A. 
Mclllhenny at Avery Island, Louisiana. 

Starting with eight young snowy herons which he trans- 
planted to the borders of a pond upon his own estate, at the 
end of seventeen years he had no less than twenty thousand 
pair of herons of various species nesting there. 

"Now let it be impressed upon the reader," he says, 
"that this great bird city, where the inhabitants are free to 
come and go as they choose, is not in the heart of some dense 
swamp, miles away from human habitation, but in a little 
valley between the hills, and fully fifty feet above the sea 
level. The land on the south and southwest is cultivated, 
and the home of the writer s within two hundred yards of the 
northwest end. A railroad, wagon road, and telephone line 
bound the eastern side. A busy factory, a railroad station, 
and a dozen dwelling houses are within two hundred yards of 
ts eastern and southern border, and yet these birds live here 
in perfect contentment, without fear of their greatest enemy, 
man. Many nests are within ten feet of the wagon road 
and within thirty feet of the railroad; so near, in fact, that 



12 SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 

the people on the train daily see the herons on their nests. 
The nesting water and marsh birds now include snowy heron, 
yellow crowned night heron, purple gallinule, Louisiana 
heron, American egret, little blue heron, green heron, Florida 
gallinule, American bittern, least bittern, king rail, anhinga, 
wood duck, blue wing teal, gadwall, and mallard, besides a 
number of species of land birds which make their homes in 
the small twigs where the larger birds cannot go."* 

Such obvious appreciation of safe dwelling places, and 
the manner in which they are frequented by constantly in- 
creasing multitudes, would seem to indicate some method of 
communication between our winged neighbors. Of all this, 
however, as well as of bird psychology in general, we know 
as yet but little. It is, nevertheless, a fully demonstrated 
fact that, in some unknown way, the birds soon become 
aware of the benefits of protected places and are quick 
to take advantage of them. While if, in addition to freedom 
from disturbing enemies, they are furnished with attractive 
and convenient nesting facilities, with an artificially increased 
food supply during the bitter winter months when natural 
food is scarce and difficult to obtain, especially for the ground 
feeding species; and with occasional shelters from severe 
storms and driving snow, they will flock to any well-placed 
sanctuary in constantly increasing numbers and variety. 
Species which once were rare in the neighborhood will then 
be found in relative abundance, the common kinds in aug- 
mented numbers; while opportunities for observation and 
study can be created to so favorable an extent in such a sanc- 
tuary as to make of it practically a vast ornithological 
laboratory. 

The importance of sanctuaries, therefore, both for con- 
serving and increasing the birds of the adjacent regions, and 
for the scientific study of their habits and economic value 
can hardly be over-emphasized. And this is especially true 
when they are placed under the Federal Authorities, for this 
ensures their good administration and the enforcement of 

*How I Made a Bird City, by Edward A. McIUhenny, 1912. 



SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 13 

stringent laws against all forms of devastation, while the 
effective co-operation of the various bureaus at Washington 
may be then enlisted for the purposes of investigation. 

Fortunately, there are now in existence, principally 
under the control of the Department of Agriculture, over 
seventy of these National Bird Reserves, comprising many 
hundreds of square miles. 

It is to be noted, however, that with the exception of 
certain tracts upon the Florida coast and its outlying Keys, 
and an island in Alabama, not one of these existed in the 
whole great eastern area of our country upon this side of 
the Mississippi until the creation, in the present year of 
1916, of the Sieur de Monts National Monument in Maine. 

The especial importance of the Sieur de Monts Park 
as a Bird Sanctuary 

The new Sieur de Monts National Park is of especial 
interest as a Bird Reserve for three important reasons — 
Geographical Position ; Coastal Situation upon a great route 
of Bird Migration; and Physical Character. 

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION 

As the first National Bird Reserve east of the Missis- 
ippi drainage basin, and the first upon the Atlantic seaboard 
north of Florida, the setting aside of this area assumes a 
paramount importance. Indeed, the significance of its crea- 
tion, will, in all probability, not be fully realized until, in 
future years, the compelling force of an awakened public 
opinion shall have largely multiplied, along the coast and 
among the woods, the lakes, the marshes and the mountains 
of our whole Eastern Section, similar beneficent foundations 
in imitation of this protot5rpe. 

Yet even when that time shall have come, the Sieur de 
Monts Reserve must still rank first among its peers, since 
its position is unique. It stands, in the first place, at the 
junction and overlapping of two great faunal areas— the 



14 SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 

Canadian and Alleghanian — drawing from each many species 
which scarcely surpass this limit north or south; while 
some even of the Hudsonian birds from remote sub-arctic 
regions frequent its rocky shores and mountain tops. 

Technically the Island of Mount Desert comes within 
the boundaries of the Canadian faunal area, but lying so 
near its southern limit, many of the typical Alleghanian 
species are frequently found upon it. For, as Knight says, 
in his excellent work on the Birds of Maine,* "The change 
from one area to another is not at all abrupt; but instead, as 
we near their common boundary we find species common to 
both occurring on the same grounds." For example, the 
northern-ranging Bicknell's Thrush and the Canadian sub- 
species of the Hudsonian Chicadee, as well as such southern 
species as the White-eyed Vireo, Wood Thrush, and Blue- 
gray Gnatcatcher have been observed. 

For while the Canadian zone is distinguished by the 
high development of its coniferous forests, and while these 
are typical of this Island, imparting to it their distinctive 
Canadian quality, its position, jutting far out to sea, so 
tempers the climate in relation to the neighboring interior 
as to make it the frequent resort of many birds which 
would not otherwise be tempted so far North. 

SITUATION ON A GREAT MIGRATORY ROUTE 

It is well-known that the migration routes of most 
birds follow the lines of important natural features, such as 
great mountain chains, river valleys, and especially the 
sea coast. The border of the Atlantic Ocean, constitutes 
accordingly, the principal highway for the majority of all the 
eastern land species, while for most aquatic birds this route 
is almost exclusively the main thoroughfare. Along these 
migratory routes, again, unusual landmarks, and particularly 
prominent elevations, serve as guides an4 rallying points for 
the travellers on their long journeys. 

*"The Birds of Maine" by Ora Willis Knight, Bangor, Maine, 1908. 



SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 15 

Mount Desert Island, remarkable for the contour, 
height, and ocean-girdled situation of its rock-built hills, 
constitutes the most conspicuous coastal feature between 
the St. Lawrence and the Gulf of Mexico, and as the human 
traveller, approaching by either sea or land, sights with a 
thrill of pleasure, from many miles away, its striking peaks, 
so doubtless our winged wanderers are affected in a manner 
little different. 

"The tendency," says Forbush, the Massachusetts 
ornithologist, "of most migratory birds nesting on the eastern 
third of the continent is to fly southeastward from their nest- 
ing grounds until they reach the coast and then to follow it 
southward, guided apparently by prominent landmarks 
spread along the coast, or to strike out presently across the 
sea to the Antilles. 

"When the autumn frosts come,'?migratory birds from 
Greenland, from all the shores of Baffins Bay, from Labrador 
and Newfoundland, from the cultivated lands of eastern 
Canada and all the wild interior beyond, pour their dimin- 
ished legions down toward the Maine coast; in the spring- 
time they return and spread out northward from it. 

"Thus Mount Desert Island, unique in being the only 
mountainous tract thrust prominently out into the sea, 
offers an important landmark and admirable resting place 
for migratory birds of every kind— birds of sea and shore, 
the useful insect-eating birds of cultivated lands, of woods 
and gardens, the birds of marsh and meadow lands and 
inland waters."* 

PHYSICAL CHARACTER 

It is not alone, however, from its favorable geographical 
situation, or its pre-eminence as a coastal landmark, that 
Mt. Desert Island possesses the necessary elements for a 
successful bird sanctuary. The remarkable and varied 
physical character of the Island constitutes, of itself, a 

♦The Unique Island of Mount Desert. National Geographic Magazine 
1914. 



16 SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 

feature which peculiarly fits it to be the habitat of an as- 
tonishing diversity of life forms, both plant and animal. 

Facing the ocean, there stretches a precipitous mountain 
range nearly twelve miles in length, containing jseven peaks 
of over a thousand feet, the highest, Green Mountain, rising 
to above fifteen hundred. These hills are heavily wooded 
with coniferous trees, although their summits are crowned 
with bare and ice-scarred granite, from whence was derived 
the picturesque name given to the island by its first dis- 
coverer, Champlain — "L'isle des Monts Deserts" — The 
Isle of Desert Mountains. 

Under the various hills, in deep glacier-furrowed ravines, 
lie numerous beautiful lakes and ponds, while between two 
of the steep mountain-sides the narrow fjord of Somes Sound 
draws in the ocean for seven miles, to the island's center. 
To the north of this wilderness of lake and mountain lies a 
more gently rolling country of forest, field, and little streams; 
broken, here and there, by great heaths and marshes, and 
surrounded by a shore full of striking cliffs and deeply re- 
cessed coves. 

With such a notable diversity of natural scenery, of land 
and ocean climate, within so small an area, it is scarcely 
necessary to point out to any naturalist the inevitable pres- 
ence of a corresponding variety of organic life; while, for the 
bird lover, the Island can be no less than a veritable garden 
of delight. 

From the surrounding ocean, with its numerous bays, 
come numberless sea birds. Gulls, Ducks, Petrels, Cormor- 
ants, Grebes, Loons, and Mergansers. Many more water- 
fowl inhabit the wild forest-bordered lakes among the hills. 
Snipe, Sandpiper, and Plover gather on the beaches and 
pebbly shores. Herons fish in the salt marshes and the 
shallow waters of inlets at ebb tide. The sunny meadows 
are peopled with the different Blackbirds and Sparrows. 
The open woods and glades throng with Robins, Vireos, Fly 
catchers and the more southern Warblers. 

The densely forested hillsides shelter the north-ranging 
Warblers, Purple Finches, White-throated Sparrows, Her- 



SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 17 

mit and Olive-backed Thrushes, Upon the colder moun- 
tain summits may be found Canadian Chicadees and the 
rare Bicknell's Thrush; along their precipices flap a not 
infrequent pair of Northern Ravens; above them soar the 
Ospreys and Bald-headed Eagles which nest among their in- 
accessible crags; while overhead countless Swallows sail and 
flutter against the blue vault of heaven. 

Within this small compass, accordingly, of less than fif- 
teen miles square, may be found varieties of natural environ- 
ment suitable as habitat for every species of wild bird which 
frequent the surrounding regions. Nor does so felicitous 
and close an association of mountain, lake, forest, upland, 
meadow, and ocean exist elsewhere on all oiir eastern slope. 

This splendid Island, therefore, with its native bird-life 
saved from the predatory hunter, with its natural attractive- 
ness for birds enhanced by increased supplies of food in time 
of need and adequate shelter from exceptional storm and 
cold, should soon become a sanctuary whose like it would 
be hard to find, for rich variety of life, for conservational 
usefulness, and for the purposes of scientific study. 






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